Battle of the Prodigies
by skaro
Summary: Annabel Carro has to spend even more time with her rival, Pavel Chekov, when they both get assigned to the Enterprise. He's one-uped her for the last four years and she's getting sick of it. Chekov barely knows this girl and doesn't understand why she hates him so much. Will they be able to work together or will they simply piss off their friends?
1. Chapter 1

"Name?" The uniformed woman asked the young woman in front of her.

"Annabel Carro." Anna looked at the woman, hoping for the best. She was going to be a pilot for a real spaceship; she just hoped she got the right one….

"Carro..Carr- oh here you are. You've been assigned to the Enterprise to join their 5 year-mission. Here are the official documents. Good luck!" She handed the Ensign a stack of papers and started to greet the next person in line.

Anna was completely ecstatic, but didn't want to make a big scene. She tugged on her suitcase, adjusted the bag on her shoulder, and made her way to the shuttle. She could finally join her best friend, Hikaru Sulu. The pair had become friends four years prior. He was 2 years ahead of her, but they were in the same track. Bonding over space-flight, lead them to bond in general. Now, four years later, they would get to serve for the same ship! Not only was it the same ship, but it was also the best ship in the fleet!

Stepping onto the shuttle, Anna saw the only thing that could bring down her mood, Ensign Pavel Chekov. Of course he had to be assigned to the same ship as her; everyone loved him and thought he was a genius. She made sure to sit as far away from him as she could. She was supposed to be the young genius, graduating from high school early. Instead, Pavel Chekov came around at the same time as her and skipped high school altogether. She had declared him her rival from the moment she heard about him. He barely knew who she was, which wasn't surprising. They were in different tracks and he had gotten all the attention, not her.

Trying to distract herself from her rival, Anna started to fiddle with her bushy red hair. Unfortunately, it was hard not to overhear him bragging to the person next to him. "I am going to be one of zier lead nawigators!" His accent was thick and almost like music to her ears. Normally, she loved accents, but her hatred towards this younger prodigy overruled that love. Forcing herself to listen in on other conversations eventually worked. Someone was talking about their theory that Apollo and the other Greek Gods were really aliens, which amused her. She didn't believe in wild theories, but she loved to listen to them. Even though some people's theories turned out to be correct, she preferred to stay realistic.

* * *

Upon arrival, the bunch of newly grads were told their quarter assignments and when to report to work training. Once Anna had settled in her quarters, she looked over all the packets she had been given. "Supervisor: Lieutenant Hikaru Sulu", the paper read. By this point, all thoughts of Chekov were out of her head, plus, she was finally alone. Anna allowed herself to squeal like a child seeing as no one around to witness it. She was an introvert and prefered the outside world to only see her professional side.

Using her PADD, she sent Sulu an instant message to see if he was free to catch up. They talked most days and hung out during his shore leaves, but working on the same ship was much better! Waiting over an hour and almost forgetting that she had sent a message, Anna finally got a reply. "Hey ENSIGN Carro, I just finished my shift. I'd love to meet up. I'll be in the dining hall in 20 minutes. :D" The ship was hard to navigate for first timemers, so she was glad that she had 20 minutes to make her way to the dining hall.

When she arrived, Sulu was already there, waiting for her. He was talking to a tall man in a red shirt, but seemed to be actively keeping his eye out for Anna. Spotting her, he waved her over. Her excitement for seeing him was more powerful than her natural reaction to be self conscious. She didn't run over to him or something like that, but she did give him a huge hug. "It's so good to see you!" She exclaimed.

"You too! How does it feel to finally be an Ensign? Or should I say _my_ Ensign, little miss Pilot?" Sulu was grinning from ear to ear. The closest thing he had to a little sister had achieved something she had wanted for a long time. He was very proud!

"It feels right. I'm finally where I belong." Anna suddenly became very aware of the red shirt who was still standing there. She turned to him and introduced herself in a very formal manner, "Hello, my name is Ensign Annabel Carro. Who might you be?" She stuck out her hand for him to shake.

He shook her hand with both of his. "The name's Montgomery Scott, but you can call me Scotty. By the way, you can drop the charade lassie. Sulu here has told me all about you. Yeh don't have to be formal with me." Normally Anna would get pissed off at men trying to tell her what to do outside of work, but he didn't seem to be saying it for himself. He actually seemed like he wanted her to feel comfortable. On the other hand, she was a sucker for accents and his Scottish one was beautiful. "Anyway, I'll leave yeh two tah catch up. I'm sure you've got a lot to talk about." He bid his farewell and left for some other part of the ship.

"So, how many people did you talk about me to?" Anna raised one eyebrow in an eerily similar way to her superior officer, Spock.

"Just the higher-ups. Don't worry, I know you don't like people to know more than they need to about you." Sulu reassured his best friend.

"You know me so well." She sighed with relief and then took her turn at the replicator. She ordered salmon, challah, and vegetables.

"When do you get to join me on the bridge?" Sulu asked as they sat down.

"In two days, I believe." She had looked over the important details of her packets, but she didn't have them on her. She was right, but just getting used to the new schedule, she didn't want anyone taking her word for it.

As they dug into their food, they let the conversation carry itself in any direction it pleased. They ate again together the next day, but Sulu was pretty busy on the Bridge outside of meals. At dinnertime on Anna's second day on the Enterprise, Sulu made a poor conversational decision. "Hey, you know that guy you've been complaining about for the last four years? Pavel Chekov?"

"Yeah… what about him?" Anna hoped this wouldn't go in a displeasing direction.

"Well, I met him today. He's actually pretty cool. Maybe if you just talked to him you wouldn't hate him so much." Sulu did not catch the "don't-go-there" vibe from Anna. However, he did know why she hated him and respected her side, but he also thought she should be over it by now.

"Maybe." They both knew she was lying. The rest of dinner was awkward seeing as Anna's mood was no longer a good one. She left as soon as she finished her meal, saying goodbye to Sulu, but not giving him a hug. She headed for her room, annoyed that Chekov had managed to win over her best friend. She was almost there when she bumped right into the person coming out of the quarters next to hers. It was the devil himself, Pavel Chekov.


	2. Chapter 2

Pavel was not expecting someone to be in front of his door when he opened it, so he walked right out without caution. Unfortunately, this wasn't a great idea. The second he stepped outside, he collided with another person. Looking at her as she fell over, he thought she seemed familiar. Perhaps he had seen her a few times in passing during his time at the Academy. Whoever she was, he thought she was gorgeous. Pavel reached a hand out to the girl, trying to help her up. "Sorry about zat милый," he both flirted and apologized.

Anna refused to take his hand and stood up on her own. She also ignored his apology. She didn't know Russian, but she was sure he was flirting with her. "Oh, it's you," were the first words out of her mouth. She crossed her arms and stared at him. She waited for him to apologize again, without didn't know what to say in response to her comment. She knew who he was, should he know who she was? She seemed to be upset with him, which would be understandable if it was about being knocked over, but it was clearly more than that. Pavel Checkov wasn't called a prodigy for nothing, he was pretty smart. In fact, was smart enough to tell that this woman was upset with him, not his actions. He tried to get in her good graces by apologizing again, "I am sorry for knocking you ofer, I vill try not to do zis again.

Anna loosened up a little and uncrossed her arms. "I forgive you," she sighed. She preferred being his rival from afar. She would much rather have him see her as a threat to his prodigy reputation than be in his social radar. She wanted to go back into her room, but she noticed that he was still standing there. He was doing that awkward pose that guys do when they want to seem shy before asking a question; this consisted of slouching a bit and rubbing the back of his head. Although she'd rather not, she arched an eyebrow and gave him a "go-on" look.

"Sorry miss, but I don't theenk I caught your name."

"Annabel Carro."

"Vell, Annabel, it vas nice to meet you." He held out his hand for her to shake. When she didn't take it, he awkwardly put it away. "I vill see you around."

"I'm sure you will." She replied in a monotone voice.

As Chekov arrived for his shift the next morning, he couldn't get Annabel out of his head. Normally when people met him, they were impressed by his prodigy title. When it was announced that he had gotten into Starfleet Academy, everyone made a big deal about it. While he liked meeting people and was proud of his own achievements, Pavel didn't like that most people didn't want to know him as a person. Some people saw past it, but not enough for him to feel truly comfortable. Annabel on the other hand, didn't seem to want anything to do with either part of him.

When Pavel reached the bridge, he took his seat next to Lieutenant Sulu. He got to work with what he needed to do, but it wasn't a very busy day. His mind wandered to Annabel again. His distraction was reflected in his face and Sulu took notice of it. "What's on your mind, Ensign?"

"Have you efer heard of somevone named Annabel Carro?"

Sulu wasn't sure where Chekov was going with this question, so he responded in a way Anna would approve of. "You mean the young prodigy?"

"I guess so? See, I ran into her in ze hall yesterday. It vas an interesting experience. She knew who I vas but she vas annoyed by me. I don't theenk I hafe met her before. Vhy do you theenk she vas annoyed?" Chekov turned to Sulu, hoping that he would have an answer.

"I couldn't be sure. Perhaps you said something in your brief conversation. Or maybe you have met her in the past and she was annoyed that you had forgotten her. On the other hand, it may have nothing to do with you. It's possible that she was just in a bad mood. I'm sorry that I couldn't offer you more advice. Women are hard to figure out sometimes." Sulu hoped that he had said enough to settle the young man's mind without saying more than Anna would be okay with.

Now that Sulu was thinking about Anna, he felt bad for what he had said at dinner. While he truly thought that Anna would enjoy the Ensign if she opened up to him, he should've read the scene. She obviously didn't want to talk about her rival during a peaceful meal, and he didn't respect that. He would have to apologize to her later.

After his shift, Sulu made his way up to Anna's quarters, bringing lunch with him. He knocked on the door, hoping she was there. "Who is it?"

"It's Hikaru. I brought food with me." He could hear movement from beyond the door and then saw the door open.

"Come in." She smiled at him, but he could tell she looked stressed.

Sulu put the lunch on her table and sat down. Anna soon followed suit. She silently started getting her food set up, said the hamotzi, and dug in.

"I wanted to apologize for earlier. I shouldn't have pushed the subject of Chekov."

After hearing his apology, Anna gave him a genuine smile. "You're forgiven. I know you mean well." With the tension off their shoulders, their lunch became a very pleasant one. The pair spent the rest of the meal talking about what to expect while working for the Enterprise. He explained that those on the bridge normally got full wind of any on-ship drama. Though, he also explained that as an Ensign, it was highly unlikely that she would be picked for any on-planet missions.

"Oh crap, my first shift starts in 10 minutes!" Anna exclaimed as she looked at her watch. She started cleaning up their lunch and grabbing what she would need to bring with her.

"Oh yeah, I need to be down there too." They had gotten carried away in their talk of the Enterprise. Anna and Sulu made their way down to the bridge and got there with a couple of minutes to spare. Captain Kirk wasn't even out there yet.

Anna greeted the navigator positioned next to her, happy that her first shift wasn't being shared with Ensign Chekov. She knew she would have to deal with him eventually, but she ignored this fact for now.

Soon enough the captain entered and sat down in his chair. Anna faced forward, ready to do whatever her shift would consist of. From behind her, Kirk started his log, " _Captain's log, stardate 3065.1…"_


End file.
